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Bill Russell Quotes

Total quotes: 20
“We learn to make a shell for ourselves when we are young and then spend the rest of our lives hoping for someone to reach inside and touch us. Just touch us—anything more than that would be too much for us to bear.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Youth, Life, Truth, Desire, Touch
“To love someone is nothing, to be loved by someone is something, but to be loved by the one you love is everything.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Love, Requited Love, Relationship
“Most people have a harder time letting themselves love than finding someone to love them.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Love, Finding Love, Learning To Love
“Commitment separates those who live their dreams from those who live their lives regretting the opportunities they have squandered.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Commitment, Dreams, Oppurtunity, Regret, Life, Living
“The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: idea, Basketball, strategy, Game
“What distinguishes a great player is his presence. When he goes on to the court, his presence dominates the atmosphere.”
— Bill Russell, The Book of Best Sports Quotes: FUNNY, INSPIRATIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES ON THE SPORTS WE LOVE
Tagged: Motivational Sport Quotes, Basketball
“The Celtic ‘system’ was designed to permit intelligent, winning players to endlessly use their own curiosity and creativity to accomplish results. That was why each of the players felt such an extraordinary commitment to the team. It was a living, everyday thing, a practice far more than a promise, it was their team.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Celtic, system, Design, Commitment, Team
“When a team is functioning on all cylinders, listening is an essential component of success. A team, whether it’s a sports team, a business, or a family, cannot function effectively unless you and everyone else are prepared to drop the filters that get in the way of effective listening.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Team, Listening, essential, Success
“To me, the most important part of winning is joy. You can win without joy, but winning that’s joyless is like eating in a four-star restaurant when you’re not hungry. Joy is a current of energy in your body, like chlorophyll or sunlight, that fills you up and makes you naturally want to do your best.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Joy, Winning, Energy, Body
“Most guys have a spot they like to start from, and nothing annoys them more than to see you there first, waiting for them. When I played Wilt, he used to get so annoyed when I would get to his spot because it meant he had to move me off his spot to start his game.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Turf, Battle, strategy, Basketball
“The most important thing to me is the friends that I've made.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Friendship, Relationship, Happiness, Making Friends
“Boston itself was a flea market of racism. It had all varieties, old and new. The city had corrupt, city hall-crony racists, brick-throwing, send-’em-back-to-Africa racists, and in the university areas phony radical-chic racists. . . . Other than that, I liked the city.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Boston, racism, Corruption
“I loved making passes in from out of bounds because I could see each of my teammates so distinctly in the rush of bodies moving this way and that. … [B]ecause I had acquired enough technique, I could slow those bodies down in my mind’s eye before I released the ball.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Basketball, strategy, Team, Teamwork, technique
“Red was a mathematician as well as a basketball man, and he drew on that as a coach. … Even in the final minutes of games, the abacus in Red’s mind was clicking away: ‘Okay, we’ve got three minutes, we’re up by ten, that means if we play good defense and don’t throw the ball away, we need three more baskets.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: coach, Basketball, strategy, Leadership
“A rebounder, or a shot-blocker for that matter, is always at a disadvantage if he tells himself the only way he can succeed is by outjumping the guy next to him. Sometimes he will have to, but most of the time he will not. … Most of my rebounds came from positioning, where I was able to get the ball while in heavy traffic.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: rebound, Basketball Game, strategy, Snatching
“On offense, it’s possible to take a break, to stand around a bit, let other players take over. On defense, if you take a break, a good offensive team will burn you. On the other hand, when you and your teammates are all doing the job – and you’re all that good – the great reward is watching the other team slowly suffocate.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Offense, defense, Work, Work Ethic, Team
“Because I knew Wilt as I did, I was always seeking to take advantage of his good nature. I did whatever I could to make sure I would never get him angry or fired up. My battle plan with him was always to keep him feeling as comfortable as possible with his own game. If he ever felt pressured or shown up, he would take notice and try that much harder. I was determined to make sure that never happened.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: strategy, Battle Plan, Basketball, Advantage
“Retiring was my final victory. Not staying a minute too long, or a season too long, let me leave on my own terms. Knowing when to retire is difficult for any athlete or businessperson. You have to give up so much and start another life. But making that decision and sticking to it is one of the most rewarding decisions you will ever make in your life. I encourage people to look at this moment as starting a new season in a different game.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Retirement, victory, Basketball, athlete
“From the first day I turned up at practice to the last game I played, I quite deliberately cultivated an air of mystery among my teammates. I liked my teammates a great deal, more than I could ever show them then because I believed, as a matter of choice, that, in remaining unseen, who I was or what I did should never be confused. If ever I was taken for granted, as a player or as a person, my effectiveness as a teammate would have been compromised.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Mystery, practice, Game, Team
“In the middle of my playing career, I decided to stop signing autographs. In part, my feelings about autographs is based upon my belief that I’d rather meet someone who approaches me respectfully, talk to them for a minute and look them in the eye, rather than participate in the momentary ritual of signing something, never looking at the person I’m signing something for, never getting to know them, and then moving on.”
— Bill Russell
Tagged: Career, Autograph, Feelings, Communication, Belief
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